Future Behaviourhttps://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk
Better behaviour through nurturing structure.Mon, 10 Sep 2018 10:10:42 +0000en
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1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.3Is negative behaviour a choice?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FutureBehaviour/~3/Jrdviv33Mwk/
https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/is-negative-behaviour-a-choice/#respondMon, 10 Sep 2018 10:10:42 +0000http://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/?p=2839Excuses and reasons- the real root of poor behaviour and what to do about it. According to philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, free will is an illusion. If I ask you whether you’d like a cup of tea or coffee, you feel like you’re choosing. However Harris would argue that you didn’t choose your preferences; […]

]]>Excuses and reasons- the real root of poor behaviour and what to do about it.

According to philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris, free will is an illusion. If I ask you whether you’d like a cup of tea or coffee, you feel like you’re choosing. However Harris would argue that you didn’t choose your preferences; you didn’t choose whether you prefer tea or coffee, either as a general rule or in any specific moment. You feel like a nice cup of tea this morning, but did you decide that was your preference or, more likely, did your preference dictate your choice? Here, we could argue that you are free to choose coffee instead of your preferred tea. However, you didn’t choose to be the type of person who would drink coffee when they preferred tea in order to try and prove that free will existed (but accidentally helping to prove that it doesn’t).

Applying this idea to school behaviour, to what extent do children and young people choose, freely, to behave in a negative way? They didn’t choose their genetics, their family, their life experiences, their school, their teacher or their brain chemistry.

Is this incomplete list of unchosen circumstances a list of excuses or a list of reasons? What’s the difference between a reason and an excuse? I’d argue that excuses are usually used to deny personal responsibilty. A reason places responsibility in the correct place/s and to the correct degree.

Even if we dismiss Harris’s assertion of free will as an illusion, ‘no-excuses’ behaviour policies fall into the common trap of assuming that pupil ‘choices’ are the only variable when it comes to poor behaviour.

In terms of negative behaviour, four broad variables come into play:

1. Individual students. We’ve all met them. The reasons for them presenting negative behaviour are complex and a few million words above my given word count.

2. Cohort. Sometimes when two or more students get together their behaviour is far worse than when they are not in the company of these classmates.

3. Teachers. Some teachers are inexperienced, poorly trained, poorly motivated or underprepared for the challenges they face. They could also be more experienced but be repeating ineffective strategies.

4. Leadership. This variable includes the quality of school -wide systems designed to prevent and deal with negative behaviour.

An important distinction needs to be made here. If a ‘no-excuses’ behaviour policy means there are no acceptable reasons for poor behaviour then I’m not an advocate of them. However if a ‘no-excuses’ policy means that no individuals should be given extra chances within a behaviour system then I agree whole-heartedly.

I’m frequently asked whether we should allow some students more leeway in terms of negative because they have, for example, a difficult home life. I’d say never. I’m not suggesting though, that we don’t make more effort to look at the reasons for poor behaviour and put extra effort into the prevention of poor behaviour with some students. I’d also recommend avoiding the trap many schools fall into, which is simply to ratchet up punishments; lots of schools try this and it doesn’t work. Careful and robust analysis of the triggers for poor behaviour, as well as looking at and changing reinforcing consequences. (How many times in a primary school does a child get withdrawn from class for poor behaviour only to end up with loveliest person in school playing with Lego or on a computer? We are then surprised the next day when they end up being sent out again.)

Many school are looking very carefully at all barriers to learning, including those related to behaviour. They start by collecting, analysing and acting upon behaviour data just as expertly as they do with academic progress data- and which schools haven’t got that part of their game sorted? They have key information on a school-wide, class-by-class and individual level – just like progress data – and use this to inform their systems, priorities and interventions. Let’s take a common example. A teacher has identified that a specific student is displaying negative behaviour most often in maths lessons. The teacher takes an educated guess that perceived difficulty of maths problems and a fear of looking foolish in front of classmates is the trigger for poor behaviour. Certain types of ‘no-excuses’ policies might simply escalate formal consequences leading to withdrawal from class. It’s obvious though that this doesn’t get to the root of the problem. In contrast, some teachers will try to prove what the trigger is. They could, for example, ensure the next two weeks worth of maths lessons start with 10 mins of very easy challenges and then examine whether negative behaviour starts when the work gets more difficult. If after this intervention and other similar attempts have been made, either we’ve proven this is a trigger (and can adapt our planning accordingly) or we’ve moved on to trying to test for other possible triggers.

Whether your school’s policy is called ‘no-excuses’ or something else is far less relevant than your belief in what can prevent further negative behaviours and increase the likelihood of positive ones. If you believe the answer lies in punishment alone then good luck- your success will be, at best, limited. If you’re ready to look at the possible roots of negative behaviour then you can call your policy whatever you want. You’ll be helping the adults of the future make positive choices that will serve them well for a lifetime. You’ll change their lives forever. Once you know how to do it, you’ll keep doing it because it works.

What made you read this article and not another? It’s hard to get to the root of the reason, isn’t it? However you did read it, all the way to the end. Has your mind been changed, or your view reinforced? Can you choose to disagree with your own view? If we accept free-will is an illusion, we change our view on how we should treat people who’s genetics, family circumstances, life experiences, health and a thousand other variables leads them to negative behaviour. I just can’t help thinking that’s a good thing.

]]>https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/is-negative-behaviour-a-choice/feed/0https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/is-negative-behaviour-a-choice/Behaviour Policy Feedback #1http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FutureBehaviour/~3/Q9oqueIL--w/
https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/behaviour-policy-feedback-1/#respondTue, 12 Dec 2017 09:50:20 +0000http://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/?p=2792I’m working with a school in Australia at the moment, and they asked me to give them some feedback on their behaviour policy. Here’s my feedback: I’ve had a good look at the documents and I have some feedback. One way to evaluate the effectiveness of a policy is to ask a few questions: How […]

Here’s my feedback:

One way to evaluate the effectiveness of a policy is to ask a few questions:

How useful is the document to a new member of staff or HLTA covering PPA?

How confident would a member of staff be in their practice being correct, if it was based on the contents of the policy?

To what extent does the policy reflect practice at your school?

If you deleted the elements of the policy that do not describe explicitly the agreed policy for behaviour, how much text would be left?

There where two areas that I started to talk about on the phone, that I’d suggest should be given much greater emphasis:

1. An instructional approach to behaviour.

The policies mention ‘respect’ and ‘politeness’ on a few occasions. I understand the intent here, but these phrases are unhelpful in behaviour policies in my experience. I’m not suggesting we shouldn’t talk about and encourage both of these qualities, but policies should try to focus on observable behaviours. A good way to think about this is in terms character and actions. Character is hard to define; actions are easier to define. It is best to teach the specific positive actions that lead to good character, than to ask for good character. Some schools use the phrase: We use positive language and actions, as this more accurately describes the behaviour we are looking for.

This instructional approach avoids any vagueness. So rather than “Talk quietly” it is best to use language such as Silent voice, Partner Voice, Table Voice, Classroom Voice. With partner or table voice we can teach children early in school how to use a voice that only their partner/table can hear.

2. Planned, specific, scripted responses.

When we don’t get the specific behaviours we want, it’s key that we empower staff with appropriate and reasonable responses. These responses are as unobtrusive as possible in the first instance leading, if necessary, to intervention by senior leaders and pastoral staff. I recommend parents are informed early in the plan, if behaviour is affecting learning.

I’d recommend working towards a policy that has clear responses for staff, even going as far as recommending scripts to use when giving instructions, reminders and warnings. It is then also much easier to see that staff are following the procedure (or not).

If you’d like to make your behaviour policy the useful document in your school, get in touch.

]]>https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/behaviour-policy-feedback-1/feed/0https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/behaviour-policy-feedback-1/Three things I learnt from a year on the roadhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FutureBehaviour/~3/4UQW7qjDkCI/
https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/three-things-learnt-year-road/#respondWed, 20 Sep 2017 14:23:03 +0000http://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/?p=2775I’ve spent the last academic year supporting schools all over the country with behaviour. Unsurprisingly, I found lots of common threads in terms of what makes successful schools successful and also the pitfalls that schools seem determined to fall into, over and over again. 1. If schools were half as good at collecting, analysing and […]

]]>I’ve spent the last academic year supporting schools all over the country with behaviour. Unsurprisingly, I found lots of common threads in terms of what makes successful schools successful and also the pitfalls that schools seem determined to fall into, over and over again.

1. If schools were half as good at collecting, analysing and acting upon behaviour data as they are academic progress data, can you imagine how much easier life would be?

Leadership teams in high performing schools ensure they have a very clear picture of what’s going in school in terms of behaviour. They know which pupils need early intervention with behaviour and they know which teachers need support before things get really difficult for them. They also see trends across year groups, subjects and locations and most importantly have robust data on the effectiveness of the interventions they have used.

2. If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any priorities.

Over and over, I see schools trying to get better at a hundred things at the same time. Teachers are being asked to change their approach to behaviour, reading, assessment, PE, lesson structure and on and on. The obvious pressure on schools and school leaders to improve, and improve fast, forces schools to be counter-intuitive when it comes to embedding practice that will serve them well for years to come. The best schools make sure they focus on Incremental Organisational Habit Change.

3. Set speed limits before you start giving out speeding fines.

I see and hear about so many schools trying to improve behaviour by increasing their sanctions. Longer detentions, Saturday morning detentions, isolation rooms, “zero-tolerance”. (There’s a great summary of the current arguments about whether these methods should be used at all here.) Either way, (I have an opinion and will post about it soon), focussing on what type of consequence we should use is invariably premature. What we should do first is define our reasonable expectations. Local authorities don’t start installing speed cameras before they’ve put up some road signs saying what the speed limit is. However, this is exactly what many schools do. They also try to change loads of behaviours at the same time. A bit like those people you speak to in January who are doing “Dry Jan”, trying to give up chocolate, and smoking, whilst also going to the gym every day. They will fail because there is a limit, both at a personal and organisational level, to the amount of habit change we can achieve simultaneously. The best schools take an instructional approach to behaviour, teaching expectations and explaining why they are needed. Only then do they start to think about consequences.

Next time I get half an hour at a motorway service station, I’ll blog in more detail about the above and one or two of the hundred other things I’ve learned. Always learning.

]]>https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/three-things-learnt-year-road/feed/0https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/three-things-learnt-year-road/Let’s ban the sticker, stamp and starhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FutureBehaviour/~3/-Hx1qMopFms/
https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/lets-ban-the-sticker-stamp-and-star/#respondWed, 22 Feb 2017 20:47:08 +0000http://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/?p=2254Enough is enough I’m really angry and I’ve been angry for a while. Every time I explain the reason for my anger to anyone “not-in-education”, they literally can’t believe it. They can’t believe we’d treat children and young people like this. I tell them that it’s true. Now, either I am wrong (and that Daniel […]

I’m really angry and I’ve been angry for a while. Every time I explain the reason for my anger to anyone “not-in-education”, they literally can’t believe it. They can’t believe we’d treat children and young people like this.

I tell them that it’s true.

Now, either I am wrong (and that Daniel Pink and Alfie Kohn and all the masses of psychological research I read to come to my conclusion are wrong too) or lots of my esteemed colleagues in primary and secondary education are accepting something they simply cannot continue to accept.

I’m talking about www.classdojo.com and www.vivomiles.com and any other dim-witted, counter-productive and actually really damaging contingent reward system. It might be a sticker chart on the wall or a fancy-pants computer program. The result is the same. Peed off kids.

What’s bad for the goose

How would you like to be publicly (de)graded? Imagine a cute little avatar that represented you. If it would make you feel uncomfortable at best, or plain angry and resentful at worst, then why would children feel differently? If you wouldn’t do it for adults, don’t do it for children. Wouldn’t they also be less able to rationalise it?

And if you’re against performance related pay, by definition, you have to be against contingent reward systems, because performance related pay is just a contingent reward system for grown-ups.

The thing is, if we really want children to grow up we have to treat them like adults and we actually have to treat them like adults before they’re adults. They learn how to be well-rounded adults by being treated like well-rounded adults.

Don’t we measure children enough already?

Babies are born and the first thing we do is measure their weight. That’s just the start of it. Can they tie their shoe laces and write their name? Can they add, subtract, use connectives and design experiments? And the rest.

Do we really have to try and measure their goodness too, and then put it in a chart? Can’t we just smile, or give a thumbs-up, just to let them know we’ve seen the efforts they’ve made. Often it’s all that’s needed, but we don’t think about the subtle, when we have so many rewarding sledgehammers at our disposal.

(Note: A word about the little ones.

I’m not against giving reception children a sticker; of course I’m not. I’m just suggesting that as soon as we can recognise their efforts and achievements in a more subtle way, we should do so.)

The problem is, they work (a bit)

These (hopefully) well-meaning companies wouldn’t sell any subscriptions for their electronic reward thingies (or big glossy sticker charts for that matter) if they didn’t work. Of course they work. You are much more likely to improve your performance in specified areas when they are linked to a reward. This is perfect for motivating salespeople but really bad at encouraging ethical selling. Vivo miles are really good at encouraging children to complete a certain task but it actually demotivates them to complete tasks for which they are not rewarded. We rob them of any desire to be self-motivated.

Contingent rewards are great for teachers and sales directors. They’re terrible for children and sales people.

“Used fairly, Class Dojo is fine.”

I hope you’re right but I think you’re wrong. Firstly, I think you are wrong on a practical level. We actually demotivate children with extrinsic rewards. It’s also morally wrong. It just can’t be delivered fairly. How would you feel if your child was in a class using Class Dojo and they came last or close to last everyday? What about a child that comes first every day? Do they appreciate it? You could fix it I suppose, share out the rewards, but really, what’s the point in that?

With these well-meaning sledgehammers, what do we communicate about our genuine desire to value each child equally?

We’ve banned the cane, now let’s ban the sticker, stamp and star

Corporal punishment was only banned in 1986. I hope to see a day very soon, when, if not banned, the age of the equally clumsy and damaging contingent reward comes to an end. What we accepted as just “normal” less than three decades ago, seems monstrous to us now. If we stop to think about www.classdojo.com and its friends, I think we’ll look back in a similar way.

Recognise instead of reward

Most schools and teachers just need to make very subtle changes to their practice:

Stop giving any form of individual reward that can be counted. This includes: www.classdojo.com, Vivo Miles, stickers, stamps, good behaviour awards and certificates. Stop it and stop it now.

Concentrate your efforts on the subtleties of building relationships.

Celebrate and recognise great effort and achievements in the same way as great schools have always done. Namely, celebration and sharing assemblies, “Golden Books”, show-and-tell and displays. Add to this the use of blogging and social media to share the good stuff and you’ll find you don’t really need your sticker book.

]]>https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/lets-ban-the-sticker-stamp-and-star/feed/0https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/lets-ban-the-sticker-stamp-and-star/A behaviour management checklisthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FutureBehaviour/~3/NmpWoDA5y5A/
https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/a-behaviour-management-checklist/#respondTue, 07 Feb 2017 09:22:58 +0000http://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/?p=2265Who doesn’t love easy wins? Easy wins mean we’ve got energy left for the hard-to-wins and there is no easier win than the checklist. Many people’s initial reaction to checklists is that teaching is not a profession that you can get good at just by making sure you’ve ticked the right boxes. I agree. However […]

Easy wins mean we’ve got energy left for the hard-to-wins and there is no easier win than the checklist. Many people’s initial reaction to checklists is that teaching is not a profession that you can get good at just by making sure you’ve ticked the right boxes. I agree. However you can make sure you’re not missing out something that is just messing with the possible synergy of your myriad of strategies.

Every tick helps

Having observed a number of NQTs this year, I saw how many of them (through just plain lack of experience) missed out stuff that most experienced teachers wouldn’t dare not to include. For example, I like all my classes to know that as soon as they walk through the door, there will be something for them to do. There is always something waiting. It’s a routine and a great way to achieve a calm start. (By the way, I’m not a slave to my routines. I just believe that spontaneity is much less stressful within a context of organisation and structure; you can break your habits when you’ve made them.)

I’m not suggesting that just having an activity on the table when a class arrive is going to turn them into little darlings, but with each of the steps on the checklist below, you increase the likelihood of having a great lesson.

It works for doctors, why not teachers?

In Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto, he explains how he discovered that pretty clever, doctory people could utilise simple checklists before, during and after surgery and end up saving lives. Lots of them. He also explains a variety of other scenarios in which checklists can be useful, pointing out that we make two types of mistakes: ones that we make because we don’t know the right thing to do and mistakes we make even though we know what to do, but still make them. Checklists can help with both, helping less experienced teachers to include strategies they may have otherwise have left out and reminding those with more experience of the things that they know work, but have fallen off the agenda.

My teaching/learning and behaviour management checklists are just suggestions. You might get rid of stuff that is second nature and add some other checks you’ve been meaning to include in your teaching repertoire for a while. Either way, making the easy stuff easier makes the harder stuff easier too.

]]>https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/a-behaviour-management-checklist/feed/0https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/a-behaviour-management-checklist/The Attention Dynamichttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FutureBehaviour/~3/c7pw1dw4YgA/
https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/the-attention-dynamic/#respondSun, 29 Jan 2017 09:31:09 +0000http://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/?p=2552The Old Attention Dynamic Here’s how behaviour management works in many classrooms and many schools. 1. A student does something wrong: The adult has a chat with them. 2. A student does something wrong again or does something more serious: The adult has a longer chat with them. 3. The student continues to misbehave: The […]

Here’s how behaviour management works in many classrooms and many schools.

1. A student does something wrong:

The adult has a chat with them.

2. A student does something wrong again or does something more serious:

The adult has a longer chat with them.

3. The student continues to misbehave:

The adult sends them them out of the classroom so the highest paid person in school can have a chat with them.

When a child misbehaves, our first impulse may be talk to them, to find out why they may have acted like this. We may also lecture them, and say how their lack of concentration, respect or ability to stay in a seat is affecting their learning. This impulse to talk to students about their behaviour is understandable – we’re (usually) just trying to be nice; sometimes we’re just plain frustrated.

However, when we always respond to poor choices with attention, we inadvertently teach our students that one of the most effective ways they can use to get attention from their peers or from us is to behave inappropriately. We then wonder why they continue to behave inappropriately.

In many cases, the same dynamic for students is replicated at home. Parents, busy with jobs and bills to pay and meals to cook and other children to see to (I didn’t even mention the pull of social media) can seem distant figures for some children. Some have found that crashing and banging, teasing a sibling and not going to bed are good ways of getting their parents to interact with them. Sometimes parents will reason with their children or tell them how good they are but, really, even being shouted at is better than being ignored.

It’s important to mention here that I’m not against giving children and young people attention. That’s ludicrous. I just don’t think we should only give them the attention they crave just after they’ve thrown a chair or sworn at a teacher. Extremes of behaviour are sometimes the only way to book a counselling session in a secondary school. It’s the magic ticket to get yourself sitting down with someone who cares. The same is true for low-level attention-seeking behaviour, but with pupils craving smaller segments of attention throughout the lesson/day.

It’s time to redesign how and when we give students attention, at both a teacher/classroom level and at a school organisation level.

Timing is everything

Every school in the country has interventions for Maths and English; is it so strange to imagine that some children and young people need extra attention? Most schools have found that these students find ways to get this attention anyway, so why not give them this attention on our terms. (It’s on our terms, but it’s for everyone’s benefit.)

The New Attention Dynamic

The New Attention Dynamic involves giving students attention before they make poor choices and very little afterwards. For our more vulnerable and challenging students, we can discuss expectations, give our reasons for setting limits, take an interest in them and ask how they are (essentially build relationships) before the lesson, on the way in to the classroom, by talking to them in free periods or in detentions, but not just after poor behaviour. For example, after a problematic afternoon, we can still chat about what went wrong, but let’s save the chat for the next morning, as a way of preventing a repeat of the behaviours.

Communicating your limit-setting after poor choices should be quick and without emotion, and without the accompanying explanations, discussions, appeals and lectures. We need to communicate when and how our relationship is going to grow, but also when it will be put on hold, just for a short time.

All the attention is front-loaded.

The schools that do this now see enormous benefits, and the longer the approach is used, the greater the impact. Let’s stop rewarding kids for making the wrong decisions but still give them all the attention they need and deserve.

]]>https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/new-book-supportive-strict-pre-order-now/feed/1https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/new-book-supportive-strict-pre-order-now/Does your school need in-house short and medium term support with behaviour and learning?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FutureBehaviour/~3/SJ-5G-ataDM/
https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/does-you-school-need-in-house-short-and-medium-term-support-with-behaviour-and-learning/#commentsSun, 08 May 2016 11:09:01 +0000http://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/?p=2608Find me my next role After 8 amazing years at my current school, I’ll be moving on in the summer to concentrate fully on Future Behaviour and a couple of other projects I’ve never had time to get going. Exciting times. Here’s where I need your help. I’ve always been proud of being a real […]

After 8 amazing years at my current school, I’ll be moving on in the summer to concentrate fully on Future Behaviour and a couple of other projects I’ve never had time to get going. Exciting times.

Here’s where I need your help.

I’ve always been proud of being a real teacher. I’ve delivered behaviour training for nearly 10 years now and I’ve always been able to say that the approach I use is the one I used in class this week and the one I’ll use in class next week.

I’d like to carry on doing that.

Future Behaviour will offer a new type of consultancy

Alongside our traditional training, consultancy and support packages, we’ll also be offering short and medium term support packages in your school.

Let’s say you need support with:

a difficult cohort

a challenging student or number of students

an ‘unteachable’ class that you need to ‘get back’

one or more teachers that need intensive coaching

have staff who’d benefit from team-teaching their classes

Think of it as Super-Supply

We know schools can pay £1000 for a week’s worth of supply. However, for not much more investment, you can have a temporary member of your SLT, that will help you address key behaviour and learning issues, AND cover classes where necessary.

Here’s what I can offer:

Cover for your classes, when and where necessary – even the really tough ones!

In-house support and guidance for dealing effectively with your more challenging students

Full whole-school behaviour management training for all teaching and support staff

Behaviour management coaching for teaching and support staff

Breaktime and lunchtime behaviour audit and observations with follow-up training and guidance

If my plans match up with yours…

]]>https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/does-you-school-need-in-house-short-and-medium-term-support-with-behaviour-and-learning/feed/1https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/does-you-school-need-in-house-short-and-medium-term-support-with-behaviour-and-learning/The Dying Art of Talking to Childrenhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FutureBehaviour/~3/BEDTPhvWKzU/
https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/dying-art-talking-children/#respondSat, 27 Jun 2015 09:27:59 +0000http://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/?p=2505This post is based on the short presentation I gave at the recent #TMBehaviour. My five minutes today is not really going to teach you anything- I’m sorry. My five minutes today will simply be an appeal. I’m worried about the motivation levels of an entire generation. It keeps me awake at night. I don’t […]

]]>This post is based on the short presentation I gave at the recent #TMBehaviour.

My five minutes today is not really going to teach you anything- I’m sorry. My five minutes today will simply be an appeal.

I’m worried about the motivation levels of an entire generation. It keeps me awake at night. I don’t have to ask if you’ve had similar thoughts yourself. It hit me most powerfully when my youngest daughter was five years old. I had taken her to a quiet country track to ride her bike for more than the 40 yards our street allows. I watched her face as she peddled and as she came to the end of a couple of hundred exhilarating yards, she stopped, put her foot down and panted these words: “What do I get?” This is my problem. I think that the overuse of extrinsic rewards is robbing our children of the pleasure of enjoying achievement for its own sake. And I believe that in the end, they are having lots of trouble motivating themselves.

But that’s not all. I think the arbitrary way in which extrinsic rewards are often given is breaking down the relationships we need to facilitate the very best learning. You’ve seen it yourselves, I’m sure. Johnny gets a Mars Bar for not chucking chairs for a whole hour. Good behaviour awards go the worst behaved children in school. Our children spot this lack of fairness- there’s an excellent video on YouTube featuring capuchin monkeys who understand when they are not being treated fairly, so I’m guessing children do to.

Before I suggest my singular solution, I want to share my two methods for deciding whether an approach to behaviour and motivation is suitable for use in the classroom. Let’s apply my two tests to, by way of an example, Class Dojo. My first test is whether I’d use the method to motivate teaching and support staff. Imagine a big white board display in the staffroom showing everyone’s names. The headteacher would come in and tap the board when staff who didn’t normally get their planning in on time, miraculously managed it one time or maybe they’d get two taps for a good set of SATs results. I’m guessing staff wouldn’t be too happy about this.

Staff Dojo

My other test is whether I’d use it for my own children. Imagine a projector set up in the kitchen with the names of my two daughter’s displayed on the wall. At the end of the week I could confirm that : ”Beth, you are officially my best daughter this week. Well done! Better luck next week Emma.”

I think managing behaviour is easy. It’s system based. With a good system in place schools and teachers can easily set supportive and fair limits that facilitate learning and keep children safe.

Motivating children and young people is a completely different and much trickier matter. Do we want children’s motivation to rely solely on external input? Helping to nurture children’s self-motivation as an art- it is subtle and nuanced and difficult, and this art is dying. If the people in this room aren’t keeping it alive I don’t know who will be.

Extrinsic rewards are like painting by numbers. There may be a place for it with with some of our students for a short period of time, but it’s not really what we want in the end.

Many schools that I work with are going sticker-free and are seeing enormous benefits, not least because of the massively increased effectiveness of their Growth Mindset principles. The children are no longer receiving mixed messages. Children’s feedback always features the fact that after a while, they don’t miss the stickers and stamps, and teachers find they have better relationships with their students.

My appeal is that we keep the subtle art of motivation alive by talking to our children more and rewarding them less. I think a generation of children and young people are relying on us.

]]>https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/dying-art-talking-children/feed/0https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/dying-art-talking-children/The Hardest Job in Schoolhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FutureBehaviour/~3/rd0gpTKCLdE/
https://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/hardest-job-school/#respondMon, 22 Jun 2015 08:56:44 +0000http://www.futurebehaviour.co.uk/?p=2482Who has the hardest job in schools? This is an easy one. In primary, it is the HLTA or teacher who covers PPA. In secondary, it’s cover supervisors. If you disagree, try swapping places for a week. The reason their roles are so difficult is because of the differing expectations of the staff they are […]

This is an easy one. In primary, it is the HLTA or teacher who covers PPA. In secondary, it’s cover supervisors. If you disagree, try swapping places for a week. The reason their roles are so difficult is because of the differing expectations of the staff they are temporarily replacing.

“We don’t do it like this with Mrs Normalteacher!”

This is a very annoying phrase for covering staff for two reasons:

Mrs Normalteacher isn’t in charge right now, they are.

Life would probably be a whole lot easier and simpler if they actually knew what the expectations for this class were.

When I deliver whole-school training, my approach is often most popular with these particular members of staff because as part of the training I help schools to agree on some whole-school routines. Here are some whole-school routines that HLTAs and cover staff love:

Having a single way to stop groups of pupils. (It’s important to mention here that every single member of staff doesn’t need to stop children in exactly the same way every single time they stop them. The approach for getting attention in reception and Year 6 for example, can be different. I’m just suggesting schools have one method that everyone uses often enough that it becomes the default method.)

Everyone has an activity waiting at the beginning of lessons. When planning is left for a HLTA or cover supervisor, these activities are supplied.

A specific set of steps that can be used in reaction to students who make choices that may stop them or others from learning or stop them being safe. (How many times do schools leave cover staff and less experienced staff with very little guidance on how they should react to poor behaviour? Is there any surprise that many staff resort to shouting, nagging and lecturing?)

Schools that have embedded just a few school-wide routines find that lessons covered by HLTAs and cover supervisors run much more smoothly. It’s an easy win for schools to decide on some key approaches and to share them.

The Ultimate Supply Teachers

We’ve recently teamed up with The Education Network to ensure that supply teachers, cover supervisors, TAs and other support staff get the ultimate preparation for their roles in schools.

Here’s how we do it:

We liaise with client schools to find out about their particular approach to behaviour and learning. Where necessary, we also help them define their routines and share them with their teaching staff.

We then ensure that all Education Network staff are familiar with the school’s policies and procedures before they arrive in the host school.

All staff are supplied with the highest quality behaviour management training so they can deal with any disruption calmly, quickly and in line with school policies.

Let’s help the people with the hardest job

There are three options for establishing whole-school routines:

Legislate for everything.

Legislate for nothing.

Legislate for some things.

I’d go for the third one. Engage, explain and then define your expectations. Create a simple, easy to understand little document and make it part of the fabric of your school. Tweak and improve when necessary but hold on to it tight. That way, everybody’s job is calmer, easier and more productive.